Colouring for Adults!

I am the most non-creative human in the world. Fact. I can't even draw a straight line. But when I was a kid, I loved to colour. So when I saw this colouring book for adults on Amazon a few months ago, I knew it would be right up my street! I don't have to stare dauntingly at a blank page or create the shapes, I just get to colour them in! Don't get me wrong, sometimes I stare at my pencils for about 20 minutes when trying to decide which colours I want to use...I'm not the matchy matchy type, you see.

There's something about doing things that aren't digital, a total analogue hobby if you will. I love being able to switch off and just get lost in the doodles and swirls. It really is therapeutic and is such a stress reliever. Did I mention I love sharpening my coloured pencils? Or is this just a step too far? My current colouring book, "The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-stress Art Therapy for Busy People", is almost finished so I may have just bought two new ones from Amazon (don't tell O!)...I'll keep you updated! :)

Oscar's Sunday Morning Baked Egg + Potato Hash

I'm always pestering O to make this dish and today seemed like the perfect time. We were both feeling slightly delicate this morning after having one too many whiskies last night and in my opinion, this baked egg and potato hash is the perfect cure! 

Ingredients ::

4 eggs (medium or large)

2 large baking potatoes (peeled and cubed)

chopped mushrooms

2 garlic cloves (chopped)

140g cheddar (grated)

2 or 3 diced bacon rashers

Spring onions (chopped)

Olive oil

1 tspn chopped sage
Salt + pepper to season.

Method ::

- Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6.

- Boil the potatoes for about 5 minutes and then drain.

- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, bacon and spring onions for about 5-8 minutes until the mushrooms soften and the potatoes are slightly browned.

- Stir in half the sage and cook for another minute.

- Spoon the potato mixture into a baking dish. Whisk 2 of your eggs together and drizzle this evenly over the potato mixture. 

- Sprinkle the cheese and remaining sage. Make holes in the mixture and break in the remaining two eggs (I'm not a huge egg white fan, so you can feel free to just put the yolks in, like we do!).

- Bake in the over for about 12-15 minutes until the eggs are set and the cheese has melted. Add salt and pepper to season and voila! Enjoy!

This recipe is so easy to adapt and generally O just throws in whatever we happen to have in the fridge that day. So if you're vegetarian, you can leave out the bacon. I'm a huge fan of eggs, but I can be a little picky about how we cook them! I love mine scrambled (check out this link for some tasty scrambled egg recipes), whereas O is more of a poached egg man! Whatever your jam is, I hope this recipe rocks your boat! If you do happen to make it, please tag me in your photos so I can drool over them! :)

**This post was created in collaboration with British Lion Eggs who sent me some lovely kit to help with my egg recipes. As always, all opinions are truthful and entirely my own!**

Try this in April :: Forest Walks.

There's something about April, I think. It's that point when spring is coming into full bloom and winter is retreating back into it's little cave. I love the forest in Spring. The browns and yellows start turning green again, the buds are just sneaking into view and the birds seem to be chirping extra loud. 

We visiting this spot in the depths of winter here and it's amazing how much the landscape has changed in those four short months. My favourite thing about this particular walk is that tree stump right up there ^^. There was a big old rock left on top of it for you to hammer a coin in...right in-between the rings.

Do you live near a forest? What are your favourite spring adventures?

Whisky & Pancakes turns one!

Today is the one year anniversary of the day I typed "Whisky & Pancakes" into Blogger's 'Your Blog's Title' box. Actually, that's not right! For the first few months I used Weebly before exporting everything over to Blogger. How quickly this last year has gone by! I decided to make some chocolate fudge cupcakes to celebrate my one year blogiversary. {The recipe is a simple Nigella one and I'm not going to lie, they taste pretty darn amazing.} 

I wanted to start a blog for months before I actually did, but I really wasn't brave enough! I was too worried about what people would think and how I would explain it. Which, in this day in age is actually really silly. So many people blog, vlog and have their own little internet spaces these days that it's quickly becoming the norm. 

I started this blog when we just moved to Middlesbrough and I didn't know a soul. It was such a great outlet for my boredom, my procrastination, and for my creativity. I've made so many new friends through my little space that I am forever happy that I decided to push the 'create' button back in April 2014. 

I thought I'd do a little 'throwback' edition and share with you my five most popular posts. Here's a little trip down memory lane...

1 :: The Best Afternoon Tea I've Ever Had!

2 :: Love Mindfully

3 :: Some News + Robin Hood's Bay

4 :: Loch Fyne // Scottish Adventures

5 :: Edinburgh Zoo {during a snow storm!}

I'm not going to give you any blogging advice, as I still feel like a newbie but the only thing I will say is that if you are hovering over the 'create blog' button, then do it. Don't worry what other people think. It's your space and you can say whatever you want to. If you're lucky you'll look back and wonder why you didn't do it years ago! Thank you to every single one of you lovely people who stop by to read my ramblings and leave me so many comments. There is a chocolate fudge cupcake winging it's way to you right this second. Honest! 

You all rock! Go #TeamInternet! 

♥

Sunday Mornings #27

Hasn't this week been amazing? The weather has been glorious! I've had the back door open all day every day, letting the fresh sunny air fill the house. This post is going up a little later than usual as I just completely forgot to write it this weekend. O and I had a few gins last night and had a serious lay in this morning, so that probably didn't help! Anyway, I digress...here's how my week's been!

:: Early morning beach walks. There's been a few this week. The weather's just been so amazing that I couldn't not go to the beach. I love all the dogs that I meet down there, there's always so so many! I met a little pug on Friday morning who was just the cutest little thing!

:: Adventures with O. Yesterday we went down to the Galloway Forest Park again and had some fun down by the loch. It was pretty freezing, I'm not gonna lie. So we decided to have a slice of cake and a coffee in the little visitor centre. Yum!

:: Presents! O bought me the cutest little enamel jug and notebook from the Lakes last weekend. I can't get enough of enamel things at the moment. Also got some little enamel mugs from Sainsbury's. How many times have I said 'enamel' in this post? Too much?

:: I have become obsessed with the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Yes Netflix, you've got me again! I think I watched 10 episodes in 2 days. Whoops! Have you seen it?

:: O cooking dinner at the weekends. I love this! I get to sit back or be a backseat cook whilst he does all the work! The fact that he always cooks something amazing helps!

:: Weekend breakfasts have also been my jam this week. Saturday was french toast, bacon and maple syrup. Today we made our own version of an Egg McMuffin...yum!

:: Doing things out of my comfort zone. I'm not very good at doing this, but I know that we have to push ourselves sometimes even if all you want to do is crawl back inside your shell. This coming week is going to be all about making myself do things I usually wouldn't...wish me luck!

:: Bagging three Barry M nail polishes for free! Boots had them in a 3 for 2 offer and I used my Boots points to pay for them. Winner!

:: Making life plans with O. We had such a lovely coffee date this weekend and have made so many exciting plans. I can't wait for some of them to start...

So pals, how have your week's been? Have you had a taste of this amazing weather? What adventures have you been having? :)

Sunday Mornings #26

 

Happy Easter!! I hope your Sunday is filled with many many chocolate eggs? I am lucky enough to be spending the weekend at my parent's with a bag of Mini Eggs bigger than my face and a dog who is determined to steal them! Oscar is down in Manchester paintball coaching (don't ask) and catching up with his famjam. Here's what's made my week a lovely one...

 

:: Spending a few days with one of my loveliest friends in St Andrews. We camped out in her parent's caravan, went to the beach, had many a cocktail and ate far too much food. Is there anything better? It was so nice to get away for a few days!

 

:: Being reunited with O after three nights away. Sometimes it's nice to be apart for a few days and then spend the evening on the sofa catching up on our time away.

 

:: Scoffing some early Easter chocolate. We may have shared an egg whilst watching MasterChef one night...ooops!

 

:: Making our own Indian fake-away on Friday night. We're on a spending ban until we go to Canada in June, so we've been cutting out our usual Friday evening takeaways. We made our own version of Chicken Tikka Masala, chapattis and onion bhajis...with lots and lots of mango chutney of course!

 

:: The film Begin Again. It's just popped up on Netflix and I am totally obsessed with the soundtrack. Turns out the main song in the movie is now the Voice single...who knew?!

 

:: MasterChef! O and I are totally obsessed! We usually record all three episodes every week and then watch them in one go. I love John and Greg!

 

:: Spending some time at home with my lovely Mumma. There's something so comforting about sleeping in your old bedroom and having your dinner made for you!! I also plan to pilfer some of her cook books and mugs...shhhh!

 

:: My dog. Oh how I miss her! Today we're slipping on our big walking boots and taking Lucy out into the wilds for a  super L-O-N-G walk to hopefully tire her out before Sunday dinner.

 

:: Finishing products. I'm not sure if this is just me or not, but there's something oddly satisfying about finishing bottles of shower gel or tubs of moisturiser! I normally never finish anything, but my mission to use up all the things I've got is forcing me to squeeze the very last ounce out of everything!

 

What's made your week a lovely one? :)

 

 





The Last Few Days | St Andrews

On Sunday afternoon I headed over to St Andrews with my buddy Machelle. Her parents have a caravan there and we decided that we would borrow it for a little long weekend to celebrate Machelle's birthday. Can you believe I've never been to St Andrews before? After spending four days there, it has captured my heart! The beaches are spectacular, the architecture is striking, there are many many golf courses and of course it's here that Kate and William met at university!

I stupidly forgot to bring my camera, so all of these snaps are from my iPhone 6, but you get the gist, don't you? If you're ever in the area, head to the Vic bar for some seriously amazing gin cocktails. There were many many cocktails (not pictured thankfully) and so much food consumed over the weekend. This was the first time I'd ever stayed in a caravan and it was seriously lush - just like a mini house. 

I'm already planning another trip with Oscar, there are so many parts that I didn't see and of course we will be taking a little detour via Anstruther for the best fish and chips in the WORLD! 

Have you been to St Andrews? What are your favourite places to visit? 

beloved | march

It's so difficult not to start off all these posts with 'where the heck has the past month gone'! But seriously though, how on earth is it April already?! Not that I'm complaining, it's Easter this weekend, it's still light outside as I'm typing this at 7.10pm and summer is right around the corner. But really, wasn't it just Christmas?! March was the month where I promised to try and use up things I already had and for that reason, there aren't too many *new* favourites this month, so it's a short and snappy post this time! 

If you read this post a few weeks ago, you'll know that I've been obsessed with these two handsome chaps! Their recipes are super easy and I've yet to screw one up...major points in my book! You don't even realise that you're eating a healthier version of the classics and so these books have helped me keep up my healthy eating in March too! 

I am addicted to this little Soap & Glory dreamboat this month! This shower butter smells like almond-y heaven and not only does it leave you squeaky clean, but it's so moisturising that I don't need to use a separate moisturiser after my shower. Such a lazy win win! 

You'll have heard me going on about this film all month long. Have you seen it yet? If not, why not? It's a brilliant romantic comedy and I was surprised at how good Daniel Radcliffe actually was in it! It's also filmed in Toronto, so I get to shout "I've been there" about a million times throughout the film...much to O's delight! Seriously though, watch it!

You've got to love some bargainous Primark homewears! This geometric bedding has been a staple in my bedroom this last few weeks. I did have to trawl around about 4 Primarks before I managed to find it in kingsize, however. But I think it was worth it. As you know, I am partial to a novelty candle...hence the pineapple, which was also a bargain. You're nailing it this spring, Primark. 

Last but not least is this little colouring book which you might've seen pop up in my Instagram feed a few times recently. It's the Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People. Now I'm not an overly busy person these days, but I can never pass up an opportunity to colour in. I had to send O out to buy me a sharpener as my new colouring pencils were getting blunt...that's how much I love it! 

And that, my lovelies, is the March round up! What have you been loving this past month? :)